Tony Finished: 25th, but on the lead lap despite an accident (see photo above for damage)

Points: 627 (26th in the points standings)

My process for writing these post-race wrap ups (unless I actually attended the race) is that I watch the race, I take notes in a notebook, and either later that night or the next morning I write out (long hand because I am old school and that’s how I do my first round of edits) my post and then I type it up sometime Sunday night or Monday during my lunch. Rarely do I sit after the race is over and write my post out directly after the race- but that is exactly what I did yesterday because I had some “writing” points that I wanted to make sure that I covered. So as a warning, I might not talk directly about Tony’s run as specifically as I normally do- but if you want to check out the official team post-race release you can find that here, in case I don’t have enough of that kind of coverage for you. Just remember at the time I scribbled this all out it was directly after the race: (more…)

“It depends on the circumstances. You can’t see the air and you hit different pockets (of air). You hit a pocket where you get a really big tow, or you hit a pocket where it seems they’re getting a tow and pulling you back, and you just have to play the circumstances. You just try getting in different scenarios and try to learn if you get in the middle of the draft, what does it do? Will it give you a push? Will it not give you a push? If you get next to this car, does it suck you up or does it slow you down? It’s trial and error but, at the same time, it’s like pulling a pin on a grenade. You know through that process that if one guy makes a mistake, your car’s torn up. It’s just a delicate balance of how hard you go, how many things you try, and how much time you spend doing it.”– Tony Stewart, Talladega October 2015 Team Release

Okay there has to be something lucky about edition number 14 of Loose Lugnuts right (fingers crossed)? Let’s get right to the items of the week that have been pinging around my brain like lugnuts in a pitstall during a green flag pit stop, shall we:

3. Speaking of honoring Tony, I have been trying to get some of my readers to submit stories about their fandom of Tony. I have had one so far that I published here. If you go to this article and scroll towards the bottom there are some examples that a journalist has collected. Anyone have anything they want to share? Shoot me an email at (badgruv@netzero.com) (more…)

This week in The Quotable Tony Stewart, Tony describes his two Kansas wins:

The first of your two Kansas wins came in 2006 and it came in a fuel-mileage race. How’d you do it?

“It was a battle between the driver and the crew chief. The crew chief is yelling at you every lap to save fuel, but you’re not slowing down enough and he knows it because he’s looking at the stopwatch. When you’ve got guys behind you, you know you don’t want to give those spots up in case they happen to make it on fuel. So, I tried to save as much fuel as I could and still hold guys off. We were able to take the chance because we had nothing to lose. Not being in the Chase that year gave us that opportunity to take the chance and go ahead and run for it.”

But Jeff Gordon was catching you toward the end of the race in the second win in 2009. How did you hold him off?

“We just kind of ran our pace. When somebody starts running you down, it’s easy to over-drive your car trying to maintain a gap, and you end up making it worse on yourself. So even though I saw Jeff getting bigger in the mirror, I didn’t want to burn the tires off in case we got a caution and we got a green-white-checkered (finish), so we just ran hard enough to not abuse the tires. It’s like he could get so close and then he couldn’t get any closer. When he got up there, he got tight and he had to run pretty hard to get by Greg Biffle, and then to run us down. By then, he pretty much got the good of his tires and we got the luxury to kind of, on that restart, run our own pace and take care of it and make sure we made it last the whole way.”

So I guess this would be the unlucky version of the Loose Lugnuts post since it’s number 13. Run and hide people! Run and hide and don’t forget to cover your lugnuts (sorry today is the Great Shakeout here in Cali- which means we all do your standard duck and cover earthquake drill- so if you are looking for me tomorrow around then check under my desk). Anyway- onto the the things that have being ricocheting around my brain like loose lugnuts during a green flag pit stop:

1. Speaking of unlucky- I guess we might as well lead with the fact that Charlotte wasn’t really that lucky for team 14. Not only did we finish laps down but we were dinged with two penalties that have us losing 15 minutes of practice time (and we seem to need all we can get lately) AND losing our pit stall selection that is usually based on qualifying. Seems the infractions were due to failing pre-qualifying inspection too many times and failing pre-race templates too many times. Sigh- so we already have been having a tough year and now we can’t practice for 15 minutes and we get the pit stall that went over the fence last. This season man…this season.

2. While on the subject of Tony Stewart- have you seen this awesome Mobil 1 GridTV Video detailing the progression of his career:

I find it ironic that last weekend’s elimination race at Dover went off without a hitch despite a dire forecast due to hurricane Joaquin yet the Saturday night race at Charlotte ended up being delayed until Sunday morning because of rain. And did it look like it rained hard on Saturday. Kudos to those at the track who stuck it out as long as they could- I saw a lot of people tweeting and facebooking from their drenched location- most seeming to take shelter in their cars. I will hand it to NASCAR- they didn’t hesitate to postpone the race- and I was glad for it. It was postponed nearly as soon as I tuned into the television to see if it would start. So yey for not being tied to the television for hours while they would try to convince me that track drying would be getting underway any time now. I gladly went grocery shopping instead. (more…)

I usually cut one quote from the race release that I like and share it for the week’s Quotable Tony Stewart- but this week- the release is so short I will just share the whole thing:

What does it take to be successful at Charlotte?

“It always seems like it’s a battle of trying to get your car to cut through the center of the corner and keep the forward drive in it. It seems like it’s a sacrifice of one or the other, but the two ends of the track are different. It seems like you can carry a lot more speed through (turns) one and two, and (turns) three and four are a little more thread-the-needle-type corners. Sometimes there isn’t a big difference between the fall and spring races at Charlotte. They’re spread out so far and they’re at the beginning of summer and the end of summer, so a lot of times they can be very similar.”

How important is it for you to win races and compete for a championship in what’s going to be your last year in Sprint Cup?

“It’s very important. I still want to win races and I can’t think of a better way to go out than to go out on top by winning races and winning a championship. We’re going to continue to put all of our effort toward that and I can promise you next year is not a ‘coast-and-collect’ year. It’s just the opposite because I don’t have to worry about making anybody mad next year and having to deal with it in 2017. We’ve just got to put something on the back of the car that reminds them that I’m not driving it anymore. I can rough everybody up next year, if that’s what it takes to accomplish my goals, and sit there and just smile and laugh about it at Homestead.”

So there’s no “mailing it in” next season?

“No. This added year is not just a ‘ride-it-out’ year. We are going to do everything we can to win races and win another championship. I’m looking forward to that.”